19 h 31 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 19 h 31 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the clubs and barracks of British India, laughter sits close to loneliness, cruelty and fear.
Rudyard Kipling’s Indian Tales gathers short stories drawn from the world of his newspaper work in India. Clubs, railway carriages and hill stations bring soldiers, civil servants, officers’ wives and adventurers into view. In Simla, a small society has time on its hands; in the barracks, ordinary soldiers share talk, friendship and trouble.
Soldiers Three introduces the talkative veteran Mulvaney, sharp-tongued Ortheris and steady Learoyd. In Lispeth, a young woman raised among Christian missionaries has her own ideas about marriage. Elsewhere, children and the uncanny enter the picture. Through humour, tenderness and fear, Kipling shows the Raj’s pride and blind spots, while Indian perspectives remain largely at the edges.
What you’ll discover
- Barracks talk and friendship Meet three soldiers whose different temperaments give their shared troubles a distinct human voice.
- A sharp social world Enter Simla’s small society, where Kipling turns his sharp eye on British hill station life.
- Love against social lines Follow Lispeth’s wishes into a world that tries to decide whom she may love.
- Childhood with serious duties Meet Wee Willie Winkie, a colonel’s small son determined to protect those he cares for.
- An empire’s uneasy portrait Explore pride, boredom and loneliness through a quick, confident voice with its own blind spots.
Who will love it
If you enjoy short stories with strong voices, soldiers' talk, ghost tales and glimpses of British India, this book gives you all of them, with jokes and sorrow on the same page.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Charlie remembers what he cannot explain
- Friendship holds the soldiers together
- Children try to mend adult troubles
- Ghost stories leave belief unsettled
- Overlooked people reveal unexpected strength
- Two companions reach beyond their contract
- Authority does not guarantee understanding
- Love and loyalty carry a cost
- Every voice offers a different India
Who’s who
- Terence MulvaneyAn Irish private and veteran talker who can charm or fight his way out of anything and watches over his two friends.
- Stanley OrtherisA small, sharp-tongued Cockney private and fine marksman who misses London and quarrels loudly with his friends.
- John LearoydA huge, slow Yorkshire private who fights well and tells of a girl he once loved on Greenhow Hill.
- Charlie MearsA young London bank clerk with poor poems and a strange memory of life on a Greek galley.
- Wee Willie WinkieThe colonel's six-year-old son, who gives people nicknames and breaks the rules to protect a lady.
- Daniel DravotA red-bearded drifter who plans to become king of Kafiristan, a mountain country in Afghanistan.
- Peachey CarnehanDravot's smaller partner, loyal and practical, who tells the story of their adventure.
- LalunA beautiful woman in an old city who entertains friends in a white room above the lanes.
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- Large print hardcover
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Indian Tales in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Indian Tales
by Rudyard Kipling · 1890
A bank clerk dreams a Greek galley's sea battle in exact detail, and a writer wants every word of it.
Challenging10–20 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you think of a bank clerk, twenty years old, who describes a Greek galley battle down to the way the sea stands still along the rail, when he has seen the ocean only once, at Brighton? Charlie Mears opens Indian Tales, and his strange memories set the mood for the book.
Indian Tales at a glance
- Reading time
- About 11 h 20 min9 h fast, 13 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 162,100 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1890by Rudyard Kipling
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A bank clerk remembers a ship he never sailed
The collection opens with The Finest Story in the World. Charlie Mears is twenty, lives in north London with his widowed mother, and works in a bank. He writes bad poetry and dreams of an immortal name. One evening he brings the narrator an idea for a story about a galley slave.
The narrator buys the idea, and then Charlie keeps talking. He describes the oars, the chained rowers, the overseer with his whip and the rotten figs the men eat. He has read nothing on galleys, and he has seen the sea once. A Greek expert at the British Museum reads his sheet of scratches as very bad Greek, a complaint of weariness. Now the narrator understands that Charlie is remembering a life he lived long ago.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1890
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 12 h 45 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Kipling, Rudyard. Indian Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/indian-tales.
Kipling, R. (2026). Indian tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/indian-tales (Original work published 1890)
Kipling, Rudyard. Indian Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/indian-tales.
@book{kipling2026indian,
author = {Kipling, Rudyard},
title = {Indian Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/indian-tales},
note = {First published 1890}
}
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What is Indian Tales by Rudyard Kipling about?
It is a collection of short stories set in British India. They follow soldiers in barracks, officials, children, ghosts, miners, drifters and city dwellers, and show how Englishmen and Indians misunderstand and surprise one another.
Who are Mulvaney, Ortheris and Learoyd?
They are three private soldiers and close friends. Mulvaney is an Irish talker, Ortheris a small Cockney marksman and Learoyd a big Yorkshireman. They appear in many tales, often telling stories to the narrator.
What is The Man Who Would Be King about?
Two English drifters, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, sign a contract to make themselves kings of Kafiristan, a remote mountain land. A newspaperman meets them before and after their attempt and tells their story.
The author
Rudyard Kipling
1865–1936 · English novelist and poet
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English writer and poet born in Bombay, India. He lived in India, England and the United States. He wrote The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Kim (1901) and Just So Stories (1902). He died in London in 1936.
More by Rudyard Kipling
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